Karl-August Fagerholm (31 December 1901, in Siuntio – 22 May 1984, in Helsinki) was a Finnish politician. Fagerholm served as Speaker of Parliament and three times as Prime Minister of Finland (1948–50, 1956–57, and 1958–59). Fagerholm became one of the leading politicians of the Social Democrats after the armistice in the Continuation War. As a Scandinavia-oriented Swedish-speaking Finn, he was believed to be more to the taste of the Soviet Union's leadership than his predecessor, Väinö Tanner. Fagerholm's postwar career was, however, marked by fierce opposition from both the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Finland. He narrowly lost the presidential election to Urho Kekkonen in 1956.
Fagerholm was born in Siuntio as the youngest child of stonecutter Johan August Fagerholm and Olga Serafina Worbs (née Nordman). The elder Fagerholm died of tuberculosis in June 1901, six months before the birth of his youngest son. Fagerholm had in his youth worked as a paperboy for Hufvudstadsbladet and later as a barber, and was also briefly chairman (1920–1923) of the Barbers' Union. In 1930, he was elected member of Finland's Parliament. In the 1920s and the 1930s, the main challenge for the Social Democrats was the rehabilitation after the Finnish Civil War, in which the Social Democrats had belonged to the defeated side. A revival of anti-socialist opinion had in Finland like in many countries in Continental Europe led to a right-wing shift in public opinion and the emerge of the semi-fascist Lapua Movement. One consequence was that socialists were barred from the Cabinet 1929 to 1937. Principles of parliamentarism again were finally heeded in 1937, when Fagerholm became Minister for Social Affairs in a series of Cabinets from 1937 to 1943.
In government, Fagerholm was one of the chief executors of the neutralist Scandinavia-orientation, which had increasingly been seen by Conservatives and Socialists in the 1930s to be Finland's deliverance from the danger of Soviet expansionism. That danger seemed to have increased with fierce Soviet anticapitalist sentiments being met with equally fierce anticommunist sentiments in Finland. As a native Swedish speaker, Social Democrat, former Union leader, and head of the Ministry for Social Affairs, he was just cut out for that task, but the time that he had was too short.
Winter War and the Continuation War
When the Winter War broke out, suspicions against Finland's "hazardous foreign politics" remained strong, most importantly among leading Social Democrats in Sweden. As the Winter War ended with the loss of Finnish Karelia, that was generally seen as the failure of the neutralist Scandinavia-orientation. As the Soviet Union's disapproval ended the discussions on a Swedish-Finnish defence co-operation in 1940, the Scandinavist line had run into a blind alley; and Fagerholm had no more say in the policy discussions that ultimately led to close dependency of Nazi Germany, German troops on Finnish soil, revanchism and to co-belligerence in the Continuation War.
During the Continuation War, controversies on 68,000 refugees' internment in labour camps in the vicinity of German troops, particularly on the Anthonio scandal in which eight Jewish refugees were deported to the Gestapo on 6 November 1942, prompted Fagerholm to raise the question of his resignation. After the Battle of Stalingrad, when it increasingly became obvious that Nazi Germany was about to be defeated in World War II, the Cabinet of Edwin Linkomies was appointed to seek peace with the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Fagerholm was not included.
The end of hostilities in September 1944 found Finland in a thoroughly weakened state economically. In addition to its human and physical losses, Finland had to deal with more than 400,000 evacuees from the territories once again lost to the Soviet Union. War reparations were another burden for Finland. The reparations paid from 1944 to 1952 amounted to an annual average of more than 2% of Finland's gross national product. The reparations were delivered according to a strict schedule, with penalties for late shipments. By inciting strikes and other disturbances at moments critical for scheduled delivers, the Soviet Union tried to strengthen the influence of the domestic Communists and to exert direct pressure on the government.
Because of his conciliatory attitude, Fagerholm was considered more suitable for ministerial duties than Väinö Tanner, who did not enjoy the confidence of the Soviet Union. Fagerholm was open to political cooperation with the Communist Party of Finland (SKP), but did not join the group of opposition social democrats who had formed the Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL) in 1944 together with the SKP. He was thus elected Speaker of the Parliament in 1945, and with a few exceptions remained in this position until 1962. Fagerholm's task was to rehabilitate the Social Democrats towards the Soviet Union. Furthermore, thanks to his old personal contacts, he played a key role in the reconstruction of Finland's Nordic relations and later in Finland's accession to the Nordic Council.
Fagerholm was also a candidate for chairman of the Social Democrats in 1946, but lost with only 61 votes against Emil Skog's 146.
The Soviet victory in World War II had greatly improved the prestige of their supporters in Finland. In 1946, the Communist-allied Mauno Pekkala finally won an election and became the prime minister of a coalition cabinet that included also the Social Democrats, though Fagerholm remained outside the cabinet. It was Fagerholm's conviction that Communists could not be defeated with repressive methods that had been tried since the Civil War. Communism was to be countered in free debate and free elections. The battle of the late 1940s was that in the trade unions in which boards and representatives were elected proportionally. The Social Democrats succeeded more often than not to fend off or reverse Communist takeovers.
1948 elections and Fagerholm as PM
When new parliament elections were held in July 1948, the Communists suffered a sharp drop in support, falling from 51 to 38 seats. Communists had demanded the posts of prime minister and either ministry for foreign affairs or internal affairs and so were not included in the new minority cabinet, led by Fagerholm. (There was no communist participation in Finland's government again until 1966.) Fagerholm's minority government relied mostly on support by deputies of the National Coalition Party and Liberal parties plus the conservative wing of the Agrarian League. In social policy, Fagerholm's government was notable for passing a public pension law.
As leader of the Social Democrats, he was prime minister from 1948 to 1950 despite fierce Communist opposition and accusations by the Soviet Union that he intended to undermine the Finnish-Soviet Treaty by taking Finland into NATO. Even Finland's growing integration into the world economy, as demonstrated by its joining the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1949, was viewed with similar suspicion although it served Soviet interests since it contributed to Finland's ability to meet the harsh war reparations requirements of the Paris Peace Treaty.
Opposition from the domestic Communists, under Soviet guidance, exemplified by communist strike agitators who in 1949 tried to take over the dockworker's union and indirectly threatened the stability of the government of Karl-August Fagerholm.
The war and the post-war times of economic hardship had motivated government control of prices and wages attempting to hamper inflation. One of the themes in the elections and one of the important objectives for Fagerholm's government was to transfer the handling of incomes policy to negotiations between the unions and the employers' organizations. In January 1950, the Parliament agreed to increase wages and to end wage controls.
Soon afterward, a minority cabinet under Kekkonen assumed power. Wage negotiations ended in an impasse in the spring. A warning of general strike was issued to speed up the negotiations. In the tense situation, Fagerholm, now Speaker of Parliament, brokered a solution that was supported in ballot by a clear majority of trade union members.